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called you greedy in jest, but to see you cast into transports over one necklet I cannot bear it!" |
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"Who cares for the necklet," Alinor laughed, picking herself up and wiping her eyes. "You may give them all to whores for all I care! You do not love anyone but me? You do not, do you? Ian, do you love me? Tell me! You have never said itnever once. Do you?" |
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"Do I love you? Madwoman! I have loved you all my life, since I first laid eyes upon you on the road when you knelt to Queen Alinor. What has this to do with that accursed necklet or to whom I gave it?" |
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"Why did you never tell me you loved me?" |
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"Why did I never tell my best friend's wife that I loved her?" Ian's voice rose incredulously. |
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"Not then, you fool. When you came to propose marriage to me. Why did you speak as if" |
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"How would you have me speak? Simon was not dead four months. I knew what had been between you. Was that false? Were you ready to speak of love?" |
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Alinor tried to think back. "It was not false. Oh no! But because it was so good, so very real, I was the more empty, the more ready Oh, I do not know. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps talk of love then would have been too soon, but later" |
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"I tried, more than once. You would not listen. You turned away, or turned to ice, or spoke of other things. And what of you? You blame me, but did you offer me a word of love?" |
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"I thought the same, that you did not wish to hear of love from me." |
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"Why?" Ian asked, really amazed. "What did I do or say to make you think that?" |
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"For one thing, you would not come next or nigh me all those weeks before our wedding," Alinor said petulantly. |
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That broke the tension. Ian whooped with laughter. "And, wise woman that you are, you did not see the |
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